Thursday, December 12, 2013

What? It is Only December?

Well I do declare December is not playing around and is in it to win it! Yeah Randy says that on American Idol, but you know, it seems like a fitting phrase because:

Baby its COLD outside!

December has brought Michigan some wintery frigid weather that is usually way more typical of January and February. If you live in the Upper Peninsula where my adult daughter still lives, way over and up by the  Keweenaw peninsula, they have been getting dumped on with snow too along with single digit temps!

Thankfully I am in Central Michigan and while it has been in teens and single digits by nights, we only have about an inch of snow on the ground, although that may change with some accumulation being called for Saturday as the 5th storm to be named already this season hits our area. This same storm may dump 2 feet on my brother who lives in New Hampshire!

Bitter, Cold and oh yes going through our propane tank like there is no tomorrow! I do believe we may be looking at a whole extra tank of fuel this year for the first time due to how cold it has been and is still really early in the season! I have been checking the gauge every few days. At the same time I am humbled this time of year knowing how blessed we are to have a roof, heat and warm beds and I can not help thinking of the homeless, hoping they can find a warm bed out of this bitter cold. It is a very sobering thought to me.

This kind of weather also means it is:

Cold and FLU season baby!

So yeah my kids got sick with sneezing, soar throat sniffles, got better just in time to catch another one and now with them being sick, I am starting to have my nose run too. So time to stock up on cold medicines, oranges, cough drops, Vick's vapor rubs and chicken noodle soups!


Then of course back to the issue of frigid temps, leaves us leaving our faucets all slightly running so everything does not all freeze up. We do have electric tape but it never seems to be enough when the temps get as low as they been. So in order to prevent everything from freezing up we leave the hot and cold water both slightly running, not a whole lot, it is actually an art form to get them dripping JUST RIGHT! LOL. Enough to keep water lines and drains from freezing but  not so much the pilot light to the water heater has to come on continuously! Yeah it is an art form!

Of course December always brings short and crappy hours for hubby where he ends up coming home 2 to 3 hours early almost every day. Awesome we get to spend more time with him but a bitter disappointment on pay day! But so far this year still has run fairly smooth and we have nothing but blessings to count.

This is also the time of year for chili making, turkey cooking,  holiday baking and anything really that will get the oven working for a few hours to help heat up the house and warm the bellies! A huge hit this week was Egg Nog Fudge! It is very sweet and rich but OH MY is it ever yummy!

The only other thought with this cold weather is that every time I hear or see one of our chickens I can not help but think how grateful I am not to be a chicken right now! Brrrrrrrrrr Brrrrrrrrr and Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr that's all I have to say on that!

May the odds forever be in your favor.........






4 comments:

  1. I made fleece curtains this year. I hang them as a liner behind the pretty ones.. It has made a huge difference. You don't even have to hem fleece! Love it!
    Don't forget your zinc

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  2. I agree with you that getting the water to drip just perfectly is an art! We had 10 days of unusually cold temperatures here in the Seattle area (for us, that means it was 16 degrees at night when it's usually 40 at this time of year). So I had to leave mine dripping but not enough so that I could hear it from the bedroom all night lest it drive me completely insane. Snuggle up and stay warm!

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  3. Those super cold nights did cause some concern with folks new to chickens in my area. Even on the most bitter night earlier we had this week (below 0F, although I can't recall the exact temp) my chickens were OK. They were reluctant to leave the roosting area in the early morning, but they eventually did when they got hungry enough.

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  4. I live in the Escanaba banana belt. Son went to MTU plus had boys in hockey so I've had an opportunity to see what happens in the Keewanaw. Glad for the snow. There wasn't enough snow before to keep the frost from driving down to freeze the pipes in the below zero stuff.
    Sheila

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